The Federal Circuit decided en banc Friday to retain its long-standing rule that overseas sales of a product don't exhaust a patent owner's right to sue in the U.S., concluding that a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that foreign sales exhaust copyrights has no impact on patent law.
In a 10-2 decision that runs 129 pages, the full court held that its own 2001 decision that only sales in the U.S. trigger patent exhaustion remains good law despite the high court's recent copyright decision.
The high court case, known as Kirtsaeng, "did not address patent law or whether a foreign sale should be viewed as conferring authority to engage in otherwise-infringing domestic acts," Federal Circuit Judge Richard Taranto wrote for the majority.
Under the Patent Act, "a foreign sale is properly treated as neither conclusively nor even presumptively exhausting the U.S. patentee’s rights in the United States," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment